Your thoughts on standardized testing?

[JackBoCracken]

I'm a high school student, and today, we took a "pretest" to the standardized test we take next week.

Now I normally would not complain about such tests, since they are usually over in two or three days, with about two hours per day...

But this takes up three and a half hours per day, for five days.

Lovely.

I've taken a standardized test every year since fourth grade, and every year they tell us that we must pass to go to the next grade, and after we take it, we find out that they wanted us to pass just so the school didn't look like it wasn't teaching.

So basically they lied to us.

And that pisses me off.

Anyway, I'm kind of annoyed right now, because I took the "pretest" during first period, and then they gave us the exact same booklet during seventh.

I don't really think that the tests are useful; if you would like to know how a student compares to the rest of the nation, you can always use statistics (statistics meaning that field of math, not some random numbers people feed you).

Ah well.

If all goes well, the entire school will be empty next week. They don't listen to our letters (we wrote hundreds of them), so we won't take it.

 

[The Stigenator]

I dont know what you mean by standardisd tests.. but in high school (10 -> 12) the school board (the governing body) would set the paper,and we all write the same paper, our answers are corrected by teachers from an another school. Its randomly distributed to the other schools to correct. Its an effecient way of testing IMHO.

 

[konichiwa]

Standardized testing is *the* worst method of measuring the knowledge or ability of a student.

 

[JackBoCracken]

That sounds like a much better way to do things.

Standardized testing would be where every school across the nation gets the exact same test.

Usually, the math, science, and history portions are fill in the bubble, but the english portion is a writing assignment.

 

[JackBoCracken]

Last year was the first year we actually knew it didn't count, so everyone just wrote in false crap. I wrote a paper about how the bananas of the world came together and sang to me.

The administration was worried when they saw the 10% passing rate.

 

[Bignate603]

I don't know why people think they are bad at testing what a student knows. It asks questions on what the should have picked up during their courses. It tests their knowledge, but not other things like creativity, friendliness, some types of problem solving and other things that count in the real world. Thats why other things besides standard tests are used in college acceptance, to get the best of both worlds.

 

[Tripleshot]

I don't know what he solution is,but standerdized testing can't be it. Are all the students "Standard"? Are all the teachers 'Standard"? are all the schools "Standard"? is the curriculum "Standard"?

I think not,and thank God its not. We would be raising clones instead of young people with diverse thoughts and attributes. This standardized testing is nothing more than a political ploy to extract more tax dollars from american pockets.

A pox on the scurvy dogs who dare to test our children!

 

[NakaNaka]

I hate standarized testing. I don't like it. Very pressurized. Like I found out that I need to take atleast 3 or 4 SAT II's to go to a good college (guidance counceller says most schools require them) and you need atleast one science one (my worst subject)

I do pretty well in school, my teachers like me yet a couple of tests will determine my future. Listen to this.

My friend's sister goes to our high school (Stuyvesant which was just ranked number 1 in the great US of A.) Shes graduating this year. She has a 98 average + got a 1450 on her SAT's and is very personable. Yet, she gets rejected from some IVY league schools. Oh if I was her I wouldn't be complaing cause shes going to Cornell but aren't school standards a little high.

My girlfriend's brother. Same school as above. 96 average + a 1540 on his SAT's. Got rejected by Harvard, MIT, Cornell, UPENN, Is going to NYU

This has nothing to do with standardized tests yet it even disproves my theory but I just think the whole college admissions process if messed up

Anyway, ya I think writing papers should be a big part. I know you have to do one but that and recommandations plus grades (a 3 1/2 year average much better than one test) but then again I don't run it.

=Phil= wants to go to a good college and has lots of work to do

 

[BA]

Standardized testing=free ride for BA!

I like standardized testing, I'm good at it. Thanks to the PSAT and NMSC, I've got a full ride.

 

[Imported]

Standardized testing in HS sucks. I have to take the STARR tests next week and they suck. 3 hours wasted off my time.

 

[StageLeft]

It is quite stressful and you can clearly mark yourself against other students in that area, so if you do bad that sucks...but I don't think its necessarily a bad thing.

 

[GoSharks]

imo, they are a waste of time, time that we can spend learning about other stuff.

 

[ElFenix]

ivy league schools don't take more than 1 student from the same high school, harvard outright told several students from my highschool they wouldn't accept them because they were already taking our valedictorian. people in the top 10 of the class with 1600s on the SAT were getting rejected. its nuts

 

[JACKHAMMER]

Standardized testing is *the* worst method of measuring the knowledge or ability of a student.


Right On!

 

[SpongeBob]

I like to think they are a good method of measurement, because I was always in the 9xth percentile when I got the results back. Although I don't think i'm really that smart so they are probably not all that accurate. Same thing with the ACT, I got a really good score, better than a few of my friends that I know were smarter than me.

 

[xaigi]

My friend's sister goes to our high school (Stuyvesant which was just ranked number 1 in the great US of A.) Shes graduating this year. She has a 98 average + got a 1450 on her SAT's and is very personable. Yet, she gets rejected from some IVY league schools. Oh if I was her I wouldn't be complaing cause shes going to Cornell but aren't school standards a little high.

My girlfriend's brother. Same school as above. 96 average + a 1540 on his SAT's. Got rejected by Harvard, MIT, Cornell, UPENN, Is going to NYU

I'm sorry to tell you this, but unless Stuy students have changed significantly since I was in HS in NY, they were rejected because they lacked diversity in thier activities. Ivy league colleges recieve no shortage of applications from people who have 98 avarages and 99th%ile SAT scores but no evidence of ever having done anything other than gone to school and come home.

 

[xaigi]

ivy league schools don't take more than 1 student from the same high school, harvard outright told several students from my highschool they wouldn't accept them because they were already taking our valedictorian. people in the top 10 of the class with 1600s on the SAT were getting rejected. its nuts

No offense to your high school, but Ivys will accept more than one student from a given high school, if the high school has an outstanding reputation. Its not unusual for the same ivy to take 3 or 4 students from Stuy, Bronx, Hunter (all high-academic-rep schools in NYC) etc.